Quilt display breaks from tradition in design methods

Thursday

Jun 20, 2013 at 5:00 AM

Pushing the Surface, JHM's biennial exhibition of contemporary quilts, will be displayed at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum now through Aug 11. The 22 works were selected because of their creativity, technical proficiency and expressiveness. Although all the works share the basic structural characteristics of a quilt -- joining at least two layers of fiber with stitching, they break from tradition in their design methods. Surfaces may be pieced and patched as one finds in a traditional quilt, but they may also be painted, dyed, laser-printed, appliqud or fused. The techniques are as varied as the subject matter, which is as varied as the effects. In the end the artists create a truly new statement that speaks to mind and spirit like all great art is meant to do.

Participating artists are from across the United States as well as England and Japan. Many are internationally known, having their quilts featured in books, periodicals and traveling exhibitions. They may use their art to comment on society, reveal a personal memory or explore new ways to meld 21st-century technologies with traditional quilt making. Visitors will see some amazing work. Barbara Bushey's Shelldrake Pilings reveals a cloudy day on Lake Superior through a lens of fabrics ranging from commercial prints to hand-dyed shibori cotton. Diane Savona used Japanese textiles and found objects to create Tsunami Japan. Her son was in Japan when the tsunami struck in 2011, and she chose memorabilia from an earlier visit there to apply to the piece. The quilt's blackened sections are ripped open, representing the emotional devastation to a rigidly structured society. An entirely different mood was created in Alene Mazzuca work, The Field Workers. Mazzuca, who lives in a small farming community on California's central coast, pieced and quilted a bright and colorful scene of agricultural workers harvesting artichokes by hand.

This is the ninth year Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum has presented Pushing the Surface, sponsored by the Mary F. Taylor Family. The Ohio Arts Council also helped fund this event with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. In addition to this special exhibit, the museum's permanent collections are displayed in three galleries: Historic Ohio, American Indian and Asian. A Civil War display can also be viewed in a fifth gallery.

The Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum is open daily from noon to 5, May through October and admission is $4 for adults and $3 for children. The museum is located at 300 N. Whitewoman Street, in Historic Roscoe Village, Coshocton. A restored canal-era town sited along the former Ohio & Erie Canal, Roscoe Village offers many attractions. Costumed interpreters lead tours through the restored buildings, and numerous shops are situated within the Village.

For more information, contact JHM at 740-622-8710 or email: jhmuseum@jhmuseum.org or visit the website www.jhmuseum.org.

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